The importance of a goal kicker

Goal kicking is one of the most underrated parts of rugby league, especially as it accounts for a third of the points that can be scored from a try, Warrington have had troubles over the years trying to find one good enough for the side.

Back in the dark days when Warrington were one of the also rans, with the odd good player, it wasn’t as important. Lee Briers was a brilliant in-play kicker, and carried Warrington through a lot of matches, but when it came to kicking the ball off a tee, he couldn’t do it. Even the likes of Ben Westwood and Chris Bridge were given an extended runs in the team, both of them were decent but inconsistent and were never really the answer. Warrington finally found their kicker in Brett Hodgson who was superb for his three seasons at the club and since his retirement in 2013, the team have struggled once again.

The process started again of trying out different kickers who all weren’t quite good enough, with the likes of Steph Ratchford trying to take on the duties, but not quite being able to put the ball between the posts often enough. The team that scores the most tries should be the one that wins the match, but that always hasn’t been the case with Warrington. Thankfully in our first two recent Challenge Cup wins, we managed to score enough tries to make it not matter. Hodgson wasn’t the difference in the third title either, but kicking has cost us in the play offs.

It’s always odd how great in-play kicker doesn’t always make a great goal kicker. Chris Sandow is a genius kicking the ball out of his hands, but is just a decent goal kicker. Thankfully for Warrington, Kurt Gidley is the opposite and seems to have close to the abilities of Hodgson when it comes to securing the two extra points. There have been games we’ve lost this season on goal kicks because Gidley has been injured, and there has been games we have won because of his goal kicking, it can make a huge difference and could be the fine line Warrington need to win the Grand Final.

Top teams need top goal kickers, it’s no surprise that Leeds have won so many Grand Finals when they had Kevin Sinfield kicking, he was almost perfect from the tee and made the difference in so many matches, including a few against Warrington. The same can be said of Pat Richards who was a vital cog in the success of Wigan.

Warrington, for now, have one. Kurt Gidley has had his injury problems and we struggle without him, he is also 34 with another season left on his contract. It’ll soon be a problem again and hopefully Warrington are looking to the future in anticipation of it. Dec Patton’s performances have been impressive in terms of its goal kicking and it’s hoped that he will be good enough to not only get a place in the team, but to be the full-time kicker as well.

Hopefully Warrington can make full use of Gidley’s immaculate kicking and use it to claim silverware for the season, he could well be the difference between this being our year, or not.